Method of disassembly



April 10, 1945. G. H. ORLOFF METHOD OF DISASSEMBLY 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 6, 1944 April 10, 1945. QRLOFF 2,373,141

METHOD OF DISASSEMBLY Filed April 6, 1944 I 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 awe/Wm George H- [bluff Patenied Apr. 10, 1945 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE METHOD OF DISASSEIWBLY George Orlofi, Roselle, N. J.

Application April 6, 1944, Serial No. 529,841

(Granted under the act of March 3, 1883, as amended April 30, 1928; 370 0. G. 757) 1 Claim.

The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes, without the payment to me of any royalty thereon.

This invention relates to a tool to facilitate the disassembly of the bolt and firing pin assembly of the U. S. rifle, M1917.

This rifie, also known as the Enfield, while an admirable and efiicient gun of the non-automatic type, is so constructed that it is difiicult to disassemble the bolt and firing pin assembly without injury to ones fingers.

The firing pin assembly which comprises the firing pin, a firing pin sleeve and firing pin spring, is screwed into the bolt sleeve with the end of the cocking piece entering a recess in the underside of the bolt sleeve and held in the recess by the strong firing pin spring. To remove the firing pin assembly from the bolt sleeve, it is necessary to retract the firing pin until its cocking piece clears the recess before the assembly can be unscrewed from the bolt sleeve. This operation has heretofore required that the assembly be held retracted and simultaneously rotated, manually. This is a difficult operation and one fraught with danger because there is no means for conveniently holding the firing pin retracted against its strong spring, far enough to remove the end of the cockin piece from the bolt sleeve recess, consequently, the firing pin, unless complicated precautions are taken, slips out of the grasp of the operator and is likely to forcefully and painfully pinch the fingers between the firing pin head and the rear end of the firing pin sleeve. The object of this invention is to eliminate the possibility of accident in performing the indicated operation. In accomplishing this object I utilize the safety of the gun, and'manipulate the bolt in a manner that will cause the safety when in a certain position during a certain bolt movement, to bring the firing pin assembly in such relative position to the bolt sleeve that the assembly and said sleeve can be separated with the utmost ease. v r

In the drawings illustrating the invention:

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of the breech portion of the gun of the type, manufacture and model referred to, the sectioned portions of the receiver being the part from which the sight mounting has been removed for cleamess of illustration. The bolt is shown in locked or battery position.

Fig. 2 is a similar view, the bolt being in the same position but after it has been moved to battery position against the safety" device, which in this view is shown on and the firing pin assembly in position for the insertion of the tool. v

Fig. 3 is a view partly in section and partly in elevation, showing the position of the parts of the pin assembly with the tool applied.

Fig. 4 is a bottom, view of the bolt and firing pin assembly, showing in full lines the position of the cocking piece of the firing pin relative to the bolt sleeve, and in the position in which the bolt and pin cannot be readily disassembled, the position wherein disassembly is facilitated being shown in dotted'lines.

Figs. 5, 6, and 7 are detail fragmentary views of the rear portion of the firing pin with relation to the safety device and trigger sear.

Figs. 8 and 9, are, respectively, an edge and side view of the safety tool.

Fig. 10 is a view of the firing pin assembly, partly in section, after it has been unscrewed from the bolt sleeve with the assistance of the tool.

The gun mechanism will be first described in order that the applicability ofthe tool may be better understood, the tool itself being so simple as to require little or no description.

The numeral I designates the receiver and 2 the sleeve portion of the bolt 3 manually reciprocable in the receiver and provided with the usual operating lever i integral with the sleeve.

The bolt sleeve houses the firing pin assembly of which 5 is the firing pin. It is providedwith a head 6 which extends normally some distance beyond the rear end of the firing pin sleeve 1 when the bolt is locked in battery position.

Integral with the firing pin and extending through a slot 8 in the firing pin sleeve, is the cocking piece 9 formed with a forwardly projecting portion 9' which is adapted to extend into a recess It] (Fig. 4) in the underside of the bolt sleeve. The cocking piece presents a front edge l0 adapted to engage the end H of the sear I2 pivoted at I3 in the trigger housing I4. The sear body is recessed as indicated at It: for

1 the reception of the trigger l6 pivoted at H to side of the gun and provided with a roughened thumb piece to facilitate the rocking of the lever to put the gun on safe or not as may be required or desired. The cocking piece is still further formed with a rear portion 22 to receive the loop of an assembly and disassembly compressed and when the operating lever is'in its final downward position, the bolt will be locked and the gun cocked.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, on one wall of the receiver there is a pivoted spring urged member 21, formed with a laterally extending bolt stop lug 28 which extends through a slot in the receiver wall into the path of movement of the enlargement 29 on the front end of the bolt, the stop being manually operable to withdraw it to permit the removal of the bolt and firing pin assembly from the receiver. However, it is not necessary, as will appear, to the advantageous use of the tool of this invention, that the bolt be entirely removed, since it is feasible to remove the firing pin assembly from the bolt without this.

The gun parts and their suggested functions heretofore described comprise and characterize the mechanism of the rifle hereinbefore mentioned and form no part of the present invention, except insofar as the tool cooperates with oertain of them in accomplishing the purpose of the invention.

The numeral til designates the safety tool, which comprises a plate of any suitable material and appropriate shape and size, approximately an eighth of an inch thick. It is provided with an open end recess 3! approximately three-eighths of an inch wide, and five-eighths deep, presenting two legs 32 approximately five-sixteenths of an inch wide which straddle the reduced diameter of the firing pin between the firing pin sleeve and head i3 when the parts are in position wherein the firing pi assembly and the bolt sleeve may be readily disassembled without danger of injury to the fingers, as will now be described.

Normally, the tension of the firing spring keeps the forward extension i) of the cooking piece in the recess it in the underside of the bolt sleeve and consequently the firing pin assembly cannot be rotated relative to the sleeve, but when the cocking piece El, which is a part of said assembly, is held back as the bolt goes forward, the forward end of the cooking piece will be withdrawn from the recess H3 permitting the pin assembly to be unscrewed from the bolt sleeve.

The manipulation of the gun 'mechanism to condition it to receive the tool is as follows:

With. the safety off and thebolt in battery, the bolt is unlocked by raising the operating lever and retracting the bolt to its full extent or until it is stopped by the bolt stop lug 28. The safety is then put on and the bolt closed against it. In closing the bolt against the safety, as shown in Fig. '7, when the front edge In of the cocking piece, which is integral with the firing pin, engages the latch 20, of the safety lever, the forward movement of the firing pin and cooking piece will be arrested and upon further movement of the bolt, to which the firing pin is attached, the firing pin will protrude from the sleeve 7 a sufilcient distance to expose the head 8 and a portion of the small diameter of the pin, as shown in Figs. 2, 3, and 4. The point at which the forward movement of the cooking piece is arrested, against the tension of the firing spring,

is that wherein its forward end is out of the recess H1 in the underside of the bolt sleeve, in which position the firing pin sleeve may be unscrewed from the bolt, the tool having been inserted between the. firing pin head and sleeve. The unscrewing operation may be performed before the bolt is entirely withdrawn, say in a position somewhat beyond that shown in Fig. 3; or when it is in its extreme rearward position, or when the bolt and pin assembly are completely removed from the receiver.

It should be understood that the arcuate recess in the cooking piece is occupied by the latch 20 of the safety lever only under normal conditions under which the safety is operated to put the gun on safe or not, as the exigencies of the situation may require.

In restoring the bolt sleeve and its contained and carried parts, the bolt is inserted in the receiver with the safety on and the tool still in place, so that when the cocking piece again engagesthe safety and a little further forward movement of the bolt occurs, the space between the firing pin head and the firing pin sleeve will be slightly increased so that the tool, now no longer gripped, can be readily withdrawn when the parts will resume their normal positions.

I claim:

The method of disassembling the firing pin assembly and the breech bolt sleeve of the U. S. rifle, M1917, the firing pin assembly comprising a headed firing pin, a firing pin spring, and a firing pin sleeve, and a bolt sleeve having a recess in the underside thereof, the firing pin assembly and the bolt sleeve being threadcdly secured together, the firing pin having a part normally in the bolt sleeve recess, whereby said assembly and sleeve are prevented from relative rotation, and a safety latch adapted for manual movement into and out of the path of movement of the firing pin part, the method comprising the retraction of the bolt sleeve and the firing pin assembly with the safety latch off putting the safety latch "011 and moving the bolt and firing pin assembly toward battery position against the safety latch, whereby the forward movement of the firing pin is arrested and the firing pin part withdrawn from the recess in the bolt sleeve; placing an obstruction between the firing pin head and the firing pin sleeve to prevent the return of the firing pin part to the bolt sleeve recess under the influ ence of the firing pin spring, and finally retracting the bolt sufiieiently to permit the rotation of said assembly relative to the bolt sleeve.

GEORGE H. ORLOFE. 

